Thursday, February 05, 2009
Remember the Jellyfish
I received an email from a friend who was somewhat frustrated that he was unable to reach a goal he set for himself. Glad to hear you are going for the quality over quantity. All this really depends on the purpose of your work. A devotional sketch a day is doable. A print worthy (piece) a day is a lofty goal for someone who is also employed. I used to do a single panel comic a day and ended up running short on ideas and things. Eventually I had to ask myself the question "Is this God's idea or Dave's?", because whenever it's God's idea the inspiration and the idea are there, I just need to be faithful and execute.
Remember part of this all is living a balanced life, devoting time to God and family and, well, just living. I recently revisited a concept I first read from Phil Vischer creator of Veggie Tales some time ago. He spoke of all these goals he had before the collapse of Big Idea, his ten year plan and all this other stuff. He likened his life to that of a salmon constantly struggling to get up stream (remember when the salmon reaches that goal she ays an egg and dies). He then said he now conducts his life more as a jellyfish. The jellyfish has almost no means of locomotion of it's own. It can go up a little or down a little bit it is mainly dependent on the current to move it along. In my life as an artist I am really trying to adapt a similar philosophy. God knows how many hours I have in a day and he knows how I can best spend them. I don't need to pressure myself, I simply need to follow His lead daily and let Him push me along. It's funny, I used to see my wife and my kids and my church as holding me back from my dreams, now I realize they are God's blessings to me and I need to enjoy them. I drove myself to the point of having a heart attack to learn this lesson and I'm giving it to you for free. :D
Just a thought, Be faithful and follow.
I received an email from a friend who was somewhat frustrated that he was unable to reach a goal he set for himself. Glad to hear you are going for the quality over quantity. All this really depends on the purpose of your work. A devotional sketch a day is doable. A print worthy (piece) a day is a lofty goal for someone who is also employed. I used to do a single panel comic a day and ended up running short on ideas and things. Eventually I had to ask myself the question "Is this God's idea or Dave's?", because whenever it's God's idea the inspiration and the idea are there, I just need to be faithful and execute.
Remember part of this all is living a balanced life, devoting time to God and family and, well, just living. I recently revisited a concept I first read from Phil Vischer creator of Veggie Tales some time ago. He spoke of all these goals he had before the collapse of Big Idea, his ten year plan and all this other stuff. He likened his life to that of a salmon constantly struggling to get up stream (remember when the salmon reaches that goal she ays an egg and dies). He then said he now conducts his life more as a jellyfish. The jellyfish has almost no means of locomotion of it's own. It can go up a little or down a little bit it is mainly dependent on the current to move it along. In my life as an artist I am really trying to adapt a similar philosophy. God knows how many hours I have in a day and he knows how I can best spend them. I don't need to pressure myself, I simply need to follow His lead daily and let Him push me along. It's funny, I used to see my wife and my kids and my church as holding me back from my dreams, now I realize they are God's blessings to me and I need to enjoy them. I drove myself to the point of having a heart attack to learn this lesson and I'm giving it to you for free. :D
Just a thought, Be faithful and follow.
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